


so bright, the flames burn in our hearts (that we found each other in the dark)

by seekrest



Series: Spideychelle Bingo [10]
Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: (Or is it?), Established Relationship, F/M, Light Angst, Multiverse, Time Shenanigans, can't eat can't sleep reach for the stars over the fence World Series kind of love, canon nudged to the left
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:07:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27608081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekrest/pseuds/seekrest
Summary: “You can’t be serious.”Peter is in fact, deadly serious. More serious than he thinks he’s ever been.Peter didn’t care if he got hurt so much as he cared for how that affected the lives of the people he loved. The fact that Michelle had actually been involved this time around, snatched up from the streets at random by some wizard with a vendetta, terrified him in ways that he could only barely articulate.This wasn’t the first time he had tried to break up with her but a part of Peter wonders if this will finally be the last.
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker
Series: Spideychelle Bingo [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1845310
Comments: 22
Kudos: 70





	so bright, the flames burn in our hearts (that we found each other in the dark)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [iovewords](https://archiveofourown.org/users/iovewords/gifts).



> happy birthday to my darling iovewords!!!! ilu

“You can’t be serious.”

Peter is in fact, deadly serious. More serious than he thinks he’s ever been. 

Michelle looks unamused, her lips pinched together as she stares at Peter. It’s only from years of knowing her, from years of  _ loving _ her, that he can see the hurt in her eyes - tightly controlled frustration simmering under the surface.

They fight enough to have learned how to fight well, but Peter’s not in the mood for a fight at all - his mind made up and his conviction firm that this was the right decision for the two of them.

Or more specifically, the right decision for  _ her _ .

“MJ—“ Peter begins, only for Michelle to quickly shake her head. 

“No, I’m sick of this, Peter. You do  _ not _ get to decide about  _ our _ lives,” she says, going to stand from the chair she’s in. It’s the same chair she’s always in after he gets hurt, the same chair that he’s seen her sitting in for years - only for this time to have a sling over her own arm from having been in a bed in the medbay not long before.

“I promised to spend the rest of my  _ life _ with you, Pete,” she says, Peter’s heart clenching when he sees the tears in her eyes. She reaches for his hand, her grip tight and her words firm as she says, “The rest of  _ our _ lives.” 

Peter didn’t care if he got hurt so much as he cared for how that affected the lives of the people he loved. The fact that Michelle had actually been involved this time around, snatched up from the streets at random by some wizard with a vendetta, terrified him in ways that he could only barely articulate. 

This wasn’t the first time he had tried to break up with her but a part of Peter wonders if this will finally be the last.

He loves Michelle, loves her more than life itself. He’d die for her. But he’s not willing to have  _ her  _ die for him. Too many people in his life had died because he hadn’t been fast enough, hadn’t done what he needed to, hadn’t tried hard enough. 

Peter has to save her, if only from herself - knowing just how stubborn Michelle is, in her words and in her determination to be a part of his life, that she won’t leave unless he makes her.

And he has to,  _ he has to _ \- refusing to have Michelle be yet another victim to Parker luck. Not if it’s in his power to stop it. 

“MJ, just—“ 

Peter winces from moving too fast, hissing in pain only for Michelle to immediately reach over to him - her eyebrows furrowing the kind of worry that makes his stomach roll, having been on the receiving end of this particular expression more times than he can count. 

“Are you okay? Do you need me to call the doctor in?” She asks, Peter closing his eyes as he tries to stifle back another wave of pain. He leans his head back onto the pillow behind him but it’s a mistake, gasping as he grinds his teeth.

“Pete?” He hears her ask, blearily opening his eyes when the pain finally subsides - only for another sharp pain to hit across his chest, wheezing as he grips the side of the bed tighter.

The metal bends under his fingers, Peter hearing the beeping from the heart monitor start to go off erratically. It’s then, in the brief flash of a second that he remembers the words of Doctor Strange when he had been brought in, the reminder that there were unseen forces that they were still detangling. The possibility of complications was always present post-surgery but even more so when it involved dealing with magical dealings.

Before Peter can open his mouth to mention it to Michelle, he’s struck with an intense, blinding pain that completely overwhelms all his senses. He thinks he cries out but he’s not even sure, feeling as if he’s having a complete out of body experience for how all-consuming it is.

He can distantly hear Michelle cry out something to him, can only barely feel hands pulling at him and harsh whispers and words going back and forth before they all start to fade - Peter’s vision growing cloudy as he stares up at the ceiling. 

For a brief second, Peter thinks that the pain might lift - thinks he can hear the faintest laughter somewhere off in the distance. 

Just as quickly as it comes, it’s gone - his vision shifting so bright that it’s a blinding white, and then nothing at all. 

* * *

The first thing Peter feels again is an ache, deep in his chest and his limbs, feeling as if he’d been thrown across the room a few times. 

He groans, blinking a few times to try and open his eyes only to frown when he does. His vision is still blurry, tentatively raising a hand to his face to try and rub his eyes a few times only for his heart to skip a beat when he  _ sees _ his hand. 

_ What the hell?  _ Peter thinks, moving to sit up only to wince when he finds that it’s not so easy to do so. His mind is racing a thousand miles a minute as he works to try and understand the situation that’s before him, turning both his hands over in front of him as he gently sits up.

He’s looking through his own eyes, but the hands in front of his aren’t his own - speckled and withered as if he was an old man. Peter blinks a few times, trying to shift his vision back into focus and increasingly getting frustrated that he can’t. He glances around the unfamiliar bedroom that he’s in, only to finally land on the bedside table and see a pair of glasses.

_ Huh _ , he thinks to himself, reaching for them and putting them on - not surprised in the least when they make his vision that much more clearer. 

_ Where the hell am I? _ Peter thinks to himself, looking around a bit more intentionally now that he has glasses on and is more clearly able to see his surroundings. 

He’s in a bedroom he still doesn’t recognize, decorations and furniture that are wholly unfamiliar. But there’s also a sense of  _ rightness _ that he can’t quite place, no low hum in the background that would normally be there if he was in some place dangerous. 

The fact that he needed glasses to see and is, if he’s seeing things correctly, is in the body of an old man - that it’s very likely that he doesn’t have his spider-powers at all. Peter’s mind immediately jumps to the wizard he had fought, wondering if this was some kind of illusion or transplant into another realm. He moves so that he can get out of the bed, his back and his legs aching with something he can only describe as age as he tentatively moves to a stand. 

He stretches, his bones and joints popping off like firecrackers in a way that would make him laugh if he wasn’t so deeply concerned about where and  _ who _ he is right now. He takes a few steps towards the mirror that’s standing beside the bed, ready to tackle the situation that was in front of him only to freeze - feeling like the wind’s been taken out of him when he sees who is in the mirror. 

Peter never had the chance to meet his grandfather, a morbid joke now that there was a Parker curse for the men in his family long before he’d ever gotten bit by a spider. But he’s seen enough pictures, had seen Ben just start to have grey hair along his temples to know who he looked liked - struck with the image in front of him to look so eerily similar.

For a moment, Peter wonders if he’s somehow been transplanted into his grandfather’s time, though why he doesn’t know, only to freeze when he pulls up his shirt and sees a scar along his midsection - in the same place where he’d been struck by the magician. 

Peter’s dealt with enough in his time as Spider-Man - wizards, aliens, time-travel and alternate dimensions - to try and make sense of what information is in front of him, but it doesn’t start to click into place until a door opens behind him. He turns as quickly as he can to see who it is, surprised and yet not when he sees who steps in. 

It’s so clearly Michelle, her long hair wrapped up in the same kind of scarf she always wears when she’s going to bed and wearing a long robe. Her eyes light up when she seems, a soft smile on her face - one that’s clearly aged but still just as beautiful and vibrant as she was just moments ago. 

“I was wondering when you’d finally wake up,” she says, a smile on her face as she walks to the dresser. Peter feels dumbfounded, as if he’s missing something but Michelle doesn’t miss a beat when she rifles through the first drawer - grabbing a pair of earrings that he doesn’t recognize as she says, “Ben and Mark are on their way with the kids.”

“Ben?” Peter asks, his heart working double time now as Michelle turns to him. Her smile turns into a frown when she eyes him up and down, taking a few steps towards him as she asks, “Are you feeling okay? You were talking in your sleep again.”

She lets out a huff, her eyes looking at him with a kind of adoration that makes his throat constrict as she says, “You haven’t done that in years.”

Peter immediately reaches for her, Michelle blinking at him in confusion but letting him pull her closer - this thumbs gently grazing her arms as he takes her in before pulling her into a hug. 

Michelle falls into it, Peter closing his eyes and holding her tight before snapping them open - looking around the room frantically as his mind pieces together a world that feels so much like his. 

They’d always talked about having kids as a someday maybe, the possibility of what their kid’s names would be always something that flit in and out depending on their mood. Except for the name Ben for their son, someone who clearly exists and his kids of his own. 

That thought is confirmed when his eyes land on a massive picture in the distance, just barely making out the faces of him and Michelle sitting in the middle of a large dining table - surrounded by faces that look so much like him and so much like her. 

“Pete?” He hears her say, bringing her out of the hug and looking at her as his vision grows blurry again - this time with tears as she looks at him in confusion. 

“What happened? How…” Peter asks, looking at her up and down before meeting her eyes - seeing the confusion and the arm in them as he asks, “The wizard. Did he do something?”

“Peter, what’s going on?” She asks, only for Peter to hear something else in the distance - noise and yelling that press in on him in the back of his mind. He winces, pulling back for a moment as he places a hand against his forehead. 

“Peter?” He hears Michelle ask, only to be conflicted when he hears her voice again - not in front of him but in the back of his mind, less gentle and confused and more terrified than he thinks he’s ever heard her before.

_ “Peter please, please don’t do this. Stay with me, Pete. Please.”  _

It’s disorienting, to hear Michelle sound so broken in the back of his mind while snapping his eyes open and seeing Michelle right here in front of him. It feels as if there’s some invisible timer running off that he can’t see, blinking a few times and feeling a sharp pain in his chest as he clutches at it.

“Peter?” The Michelle in front of him asks, eyes widening in alarm as she reaches for him. Peter lands on the bed, sitting down as she sits beside him - searching his face as the alarms and yells in the back of his mind grow louder and louder.

_ “I promised to spend the rest of my life with you.” _

The words Michelle had said not even moments ago come rushing back to him, glancing up in the room and seeing the face of the wizard he’d fought before he disappears - Peter’s stomach dropping when he realizes what’s in front of him. 

There’s a choice he has to make, a knowledge that can only be described as intuitive as he stares at the Michelle in front of him - hearing Michelle’s cries in the back of his mind. 

Wherever he was, it was another world - another timeline, another plane of existence - where he was no longer Spider-Man. Be it by choice or from whatever magic that had been struck, he was here with her - having lived a long and beautiful life with the woman he loved. A life that clearly led to children, to  _ grandchildren _ , peaceful in a way Peter could only dream of. 

But it was just there too, the chance to go back to where he came from - to  _ his _ Michelle, even if he hates the thought as quickly as it came. 

In every life and in every story, it would always be her. 

There’s a part of Peter that wants to stay here, in the happy after - in the knowledge that everything is safe and okay and that Michelle, his beautiful wife, gets to live that happy ending with him just as much as he gets to live it with her. 

But the voice of Michelle in the back of his mind pulls at him, an ache deep in his chest at the thought of leaving her - hoping that wherever the Peter of this plane of existence went off too now that he’s inhabiting his body, he’ll come back to be with the Michelle in front of him.

“I love you,” Peter finally says, making his decision and feeling something shift in place - Michelle shaking her head a few times before saying, “I love you. Peter, what--”

Before she can say anything else, Peter feels the pain once again - white hot, sharp, like lightning. Then nothing at all.

* * *

The next time Peter wakes, the first thing he feels is pain. 

Yet the next thing he feels are hands, warm and soft and gentle as they squeeze his own. He can hear the hiss of some machine in the background, can feel the oxygen mask strapped to his face and the murmured whispers turning silent as he works to open his eyes.

“Pete?” 

Peter could cry from the relief he feels at hearing her voice, eyelids fluttering before finally opening. His vision is blurry for a brief moment, terror spiking through him only to blink a few times and for it to turn clear - staring up at the ceiling before turning to the side. 

And that’s when he sees her. Michelle in the same chair she’s always in after he gets hurt, the same chair that he’s seen her sitting in for years - the sling that she’d had over her arm now long gone. 

It strikes him to notice it’s missing, wondering just how much time has passed only to be distracted when she surges upwards - bringing the hand that she doesn’t have intertwined with his up to his face, gently cradling his face while being mindful of the oxygen mask attached to it. 

Peter can see the tears in her eyes and the puffiness in her cheeks, everything in him wanting to comfort her but feeling like he’s being weighed down. Michelle must notice his predicament because she lets out a small laugh, smiling as the grip in his hand grows tighter when she says, “Settle down, tiger.” 

Peter tries to smile, his eyes searching her face as Michelle just tilts her head - chin trembling before she says, “You came back to me.”

_ Always _ , Peter thinks - wondering how in the world he ever thought he could ever think he’d be strong enough to leave her, that he could be selfish enough to think he could push her away. 

There’s a part of him that wonders if he chose wrong, if the wizard had given him a gift and not a curse - a chance to live out the promise that they both so desperately wanted to have. 

But there’s another part of him that knows that even if that were the case, he could never do that to the Michelle in front of him now - shame and conviction flowing through him in equal measure. 

He couldn’t push her away, not when there was a chance of a future for them - not when there was a chance for happiness. Whatever the wizard had originally planned or what issues his body was still recovering from, he was certain of this. He was a fool to try and push her away. 

It’s a truth that he knew just as solidly as he knew the truth of the choice he had to make - one that he can see so clearly in her eyes as she stares right back at him. 

Peter doesn’t know what is in store for the two of them, doesn’t know what uncertainty this life has for him. But he does know this. 

In every life and in every story, it would always be her. 

**Author's Note:**

> I love it when people scream at me in the comments.


End file.
